Policy Grants

Focus on Nonprofit Worker Well-being

The Walter & Elise Haas Fund holds that:

• Nonprofits have the vision and ability to meet their own goals and the community’s needs for justice, dignity, and joy; and
• Nonprofit work can and should be high quality, family-sustaining work that provides a pathway out of poverty, and that nonprofit worker well-being is crucial to the vitality and health of our communities.

We believe that our role as an institutional philanthropy is to fund nonprofits to win on their own terms, as well as to support the conditions for high quality, empowering nonprofit work. Along with our partner in this work, the James Irvine Foundation, we recognize that nonprofit worker well-being matters when we seek racial and gender justice and is a component of how nonprofits meet their critically important missions with care, optimism, and capacity.

We aim to learn more about the current state of nonprofit work, the conditions that make that so, and paths to solve deep-seated barriers to nonprofit worker well-being. We hope that articulating the problems with clear data and analysis will allow more actors — including nonprofit staff and leaders, government, and private funders — to engage in thoughtful and collaborative problem-solving.

Our Intended Outcomes

We are making one $300,000 grant to support

• Building a body of data and knowledge on nonprofit worker well-being, with a particular focus on the San Francisco Bay Area and California
• Dissemination of findings to policymakers, funders, and nonprofit leaders and staff to:
  • Support common language and understanding of the key problems and barriers to nonprofit worker well-being in the region and state
  • Increase awareness of key opportunities for impactful policy and practice change

Timeline

• May – June 26, 2024: Window for applications open
• July – August, 2024: Panel review and recommendation
• September 27, 2024: Award announced
• October 1: Grant starts
• September 30, 2025: Findings delivered
• October – December 2025: Dissemination

Who Can Apply

The window for application to the program closed on June 26, 2024.

Eligibility

Applying organizations need to be

• a 501(c)3 entity, or fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)3 entity,  to receive grant funds

Applying organizations are

• California focused, with a strong focus in and with Alameda and San Francisco counties
• Able to demonstrate a proven track record of rigorous and culturally responsive research practice
• Able to demonstrate a proven track record of reaching diverse audiences across nonprofit sector to catalyze insight and action
• Committed to worker well-being within their own organization